Safety device for wringers.



, MARX. SAFETY DEVICE FOR WRINGERS.

APPLHLATION mm: mm.

Patented %ept. 18, 1917.

2 SHEETS--SHEET H. MARX.

SAFETY DEVICE FOR WRINGERS.

APPLICATION FILED ]AN,18,1917.

Patented Sept. 18, 1917.

2 SHEETS-MEET 2.

RICHARD MARX, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SAFETY DEVICE FOR WRINGERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 18, 1917.

Application filed January 18, 1917. Serial No. 143,133.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, RICHARD MARX, a citizen of the United States, residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented Safety Devices for \V ringers, of which the following is a specification.

One object of my invention is to provide an attachment for power-driven clothes wringers or similar devices including a pair of cofiiperating rolls which shall make it practically impossible for the fingers or hand of the operator to be drawn into such rolls with consequent serious iujury;-the invention contemplating a novel arrangement 'of auxiliary rolls so positioned as to serve as guards for the main rolls while being so supported as to be incapable of in juring the operator.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel means for supporting one or two sets of guard rolls adjacent a pair of main rolls which shall permit of the separation of said guard rolls without injury to an operators linger or hand in case this should be accidentally drawn between the same, the invention also including novel supporting and driving means for these guard rolls which will maintain the pair on the receiving side of the main rollers in engagement with each other while holding those on the delivery side separated.

A further object-of the invention is to provide av machine employing a pair/of main wringing or other cooperating rolls with two pairs of guard rolls and means for causing either pair of said guard rolls to be in contact when the other pair is separated, depending upon the c irection in which the material is fed through the main rolls ;the arrangement preferably being such that the positions of these guard rolls, is dependent upon the position of the drain board.

These objects and other advantageous ends I attain as hereinafter set forth, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is an end elevation of a clothes wringer equipped with my invention;

Fig}. 2 is a side elevation of the appa 'atus shown in Fig. 1; and V Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33, Fig. 2.

In the above drawings 1 represents the .end members .of the frame of a clothes wringer, which are rigidly connected at the top by a cross baa- 2 and ,1n the present 1nstance are shown as bolted to supporting structures 3. Each of said members 1 has a longitudinal slot or guideway in which is mounted a pair of bearing blocks 4 and 5 respectively carrying the spindles 6 and 7 of a pair of main wringing rolls 8 and 9.

In each of the guideways is mounted a relatively heavy spring 10 whose lower end acts upon a plate 11 mounted upon the bearing block 5 while thumb screws 12, threaded through the top of each of the side members, engage the upper ends of the spring as to cause them to exert any of several pressures upon the bearing blocks 5, and cause the roll 9to be forced toward the roll 8 with a correspondingforce.

The spindle 6 of the roll 8 is extended beyond the outer surface ofone of the side members 1 and has fixedto it a gear wheel 13 which meshes with a similar gear wheel 14 fixed to the similarly extended end of the spindle T which carries the roll 9. The lower one of these gears is positively driven from a source of power which is capable of reversing its direction of rotation so as to reverse the direction of the two rollers 8 and 9.

In order to prtvent the fingers of an operator being drawn into these main rolls I mount on the inner face of each of the frame members 1 a frame consisting of a centrally "pivoted top member 15 and two vertical members 16 and 17, extending on opposite sides of the rollers adjacent the ends thereof. These vertical members at their upper ends are pivotally connected to the cross member 15 and at their lower ends are similarly pivoted to the ends of the drain-board 18. This latter is centrally pivoted to and extends between the two side frame members 1 and the proportioning of the various partsis such that the top bars 15 are at all times substantially parallel to the plane of the drain-board 18.

On one of the front edges of each of the frame members 1 I mount a bearing bracket 19 and-journal therein a spindle 20 on Which is carried an auxiliary roll 21'. In order to permit passage of said spindle 20 I form each of the frame members 16 with a vertically elongated slot 22 so that said frame with the drain-board may be adjusted with; out interference from said roll.

Similarly, on the opposite face of each of the frame members 1, I provide. a second bracket 23 in Whichiis journaled the spindle 2 1 of a roll 25, and the frame member 17 is likewise provided with a slot 20 to permit of the passage of said spindle. Cooperating with the roll 21 is a second roll 27 whose supporting spindle 28 enters elongated slots 29 in the frame members 16. Similarly a roll 30 has its spindle 31 operative in slots 32 of the frame members 17 and the arrangement is such that when the drain board 18 with its associated frame members 16-15-17 occupies one position, the roll 27 is in engagement with the roll 21, although free to rise in its slots 29 against the fiction of gravity when any object is passed between it and the lower roll. At the same time the roll 30 is supported .or.spaced apart from the roll 25- so that any material passing between the rolls 21 and 27 and S and 9 moves over the roll 25 without being engaged by the roll 30.

If the drain-board 18 with the frame members 161517, be shifted into the position shown in dotted lines in Fig, 3, the roll 30 is brought into engagement with the surface of the roll 25, while the roll 27 is raised from contact with the roll 21. This latter roll is positively driven from the gear 13 through an idler gear 33, which meshes with the gear 13 and which in turn drives a gear 34 fixed to the spindle 20. Similarly the roll 25 is driven through an idler gear 35 and a second gear 36 fixed to the spindle 24.

lVith this arrangement of parts, it is obvious that if articles of clothing or the like are fed between the rolls 2l27',the latter of these rolls freely rises to permit said articles passing to the rolls 8 and 9, which act to squeeze out a large proportion of the.

water in them. Suchwater falling onto the drain-board 18, is directed thereby into the receptacle from which the articles were taken, and these latter after passing through the main rolls 8 and 9, are discharged by the roll 25, which like the roll 21, is turned in a direction to facilitate their movement.

Obviously if in feeding the articles between the rolls 21 and 27, the operator should have his fingers drawn between the latter, no injury would result since the up- I per roll is merely held in place by gravity and would freely move up without having appreciable crushing eflect, although its slight pressure would serve as a warning and cause the speedy withdrawal of the finger. Obviously it would be highly improbable that the finger or hand of the operator would be drawn so far between the rolls 2127 as to permit of its being caught between the main rolls 89.

Similarly, when the position of the drainboard 18 is reversed and the rolls 8 and 9 are driven in a reverse direction so as to require the articles operated on to be fed into the right hand side of the machine, such reversed movement of said board naturally brings the rolls 25 and30 into engagement, so that these serve as guards to warn the operator as well as to prevent his fingers or hand being drawn into the main rolls 8 and 9. At the same time, this reversal of the direction of operation and changing of the position of the frame members l615--17 causes a wide separation of the rolls 21-27.

In order to guide material such as articles of clothing into the two sets of rolls 2127 and 2530, I provide on each of the frame members 16 and 17 outwardly projecting brackets 37 and 38 and journal in these the spindles of vertical rolls 39 and 40, so placed that they effectually prevent the materials operated on being drawn into the end portions of the rolls.

I claim 1. The combination of a pair of main driven rolls; and a pair of freely separable guard rolls held together by gravity and' to permit of its free movement toward and from the other guard roll; and means for driving the rolls.

3. The combination in a wringer of a supporting structure; a pair of main rolls; springs yieldinglyforcing together said main rolls; a pair of guard rolls'of which one has its spindle slidable imslots of the supporting structure andis held in engagement with the other roll by the action of gravity; and common driving means for the main rolls and one of the guard rolls.

4. The combination in a wringer of a main frame; a pair of main rolls therein; a movably mounted auxiliary frame including vertically slotted structures; a roll mounted in and free to move up and down in the slots of said auxiliary structure; a second guard roll supported on the main frame in position to cooperate with said firlslt guard roll; and driving means for the r0 s.

5. The combination in a wringer of a supporting frame; a pair of main rolls; an oscillatory drain-board carried by the frame under said main rolls; a movable frame attached to said drain-board; and two pairs of guard rolls respectively on opposite sides of the main rolls, one guard roll of each main frame; two main rolls journaled there in; a drain-board pivoted to the main frame under said rolls; two cross members pivoted to the main frame; vertical members pivoted to the ends of each of said cross members and also to the drain-board; and two pairs of guard rolls respectively mounted on opposite sides of the main rolls, one guard roll of each pair being supported by the main frame and the other being movably journaled in said vertical members so as to be free to move toward and from the first roll; with means for driving the main rolls and at least one of each pair of guard rolls.

7. The combination in a Wrmger of a main frame; a pair of main rolls ournaled therein; a guard roll rotatably mounted ,on the mam frame in front of said main rolls;

4 a drain-board pivoted to the main frame; a

movable frame connected to the drain board so as to be shifted therewith and including upwardly extending mem'bers slotted for the Y passage of thespi'ndle of said guard roll; with a second guard roll bodily movable in the frame member and resting on the first guard roll under the action of gravity. I

8. The combination in a wringeriof a main frame; two main rolls journaled there in; an oscillatory drain-board mounted under said rolls; a movable frame including two pairs of upwardly extending members connected to said drain-board, said members each having two elongated slots; guard rolls mounted in fixed bearings on opposite sides of the main rolls and respectively having portions passing through certain of the slots meow].

of said movable frame members; with two other guard rolls having spindles respectively operative inothers of the slots of the frame members and positioned to coiiperate with said first uard rolls; with means for driving the main rolls and at least one of each codperating pair of guard rolls.

9. The combination in a wringer of a pair of main wringing rolls; pairs of guard'rolls respectively on opposite sides of said main rolls; means for driving'said pairs of rolls, with means for maintaining one pair of guard rolls separated and the other pair in engagement with each other.

10. The combination in a wringer of a pair of main wringing rolls; pairs of guard rolls respectively on opposite sides of said mainrolls; means for driving said pairs of rolls, means for maintaining one pair of guard rolls separated and the other pair in engagement with each other; with mechanism for altering the particular pair of guard rolls in engagement with each other.

11. The combination in a wringer of a pair of main wringing rolls; pairs of guard rolls respectively on opposite sides of said main rolls; a reversible drain board; and means for connecting said board to certain of the guard rolls to cause the rolls of one pair to be in engagement when said board is in one position and the other pair to be in engagement when the board is in its reversed position..

In witness whereof I afiix my signature.

RICHARD MARX. 

